Get the wheels in motion on Jersey Shore bike lanes: Editorial

Advocates are pushing for dedicated bicycle lanes as part of the rebuilding of hurricane-damaged Route 35 between Point Pleasant and Island Beach State Park in Ocean County. David Gard/For The Star-Ledger

Nothing says Jersey Shore like a classic beach cruiser bicycle.

Everywhere you look, there’s a rainbow of them. But it’s a whole lot safer to take a twirl along the boardwalk, squeezing your bugle horn, than to venture onto Route 35 — one of the most popular routes for beach-goers.

Its shoulder of sandy asphalt gets narrow. Riders might rupture a tire, or dart out into the road. There have been too many accidents already.

Now think how much better this summertime commute would be with dedicated bike lanes. This is the vision of biking advocates, who fear that the state Department of Transportation is missing the perfect chance to install a bike route while rebuilding this shore road damaged by Hurricane Sandy.

The DOT, which just received federal funds to completely reconstruct the 12½-mile span of Route 35 between Point Pleasant and Island Beach State Park, included sidewalks and crosswalks in its initial design, but no bike lanes — even though herds of cyclists already navigate this road.

That can’t be allowed to stand. Joe Dee, a spokesman for DOT, which oversees this state road, says it’s “absolutely not” too late to add bike lanes, which the agency is now considering. And it should. Right away.

The Shore is the ideal test ground for bike lanes. It’s a lot more economical to create them now, as the road is being reconstructed, than to go back and retrofit for them later. It may also ease the parking crunch at the Shore, by encouraging more people to ride bicycles.

And bikers aren’t asking for this entire roadway to be widened; just common-sense features such as striping and narrowed travel lanes for cars where there is a slim shoulder, which naturally slows the speed of traffic.

The bike lanes must be created in a way that would preserve scarce parking. That said, DOT shouldn’t reroute the lanes around the business district entirely. They’d either be directing bicyclists away from stores, squandering an economic opportunity, or leaving them to peddle through anyway, uncontrolled by any sensible traffic system.

What driver wants to get stuck behind that? Since the bicyclists are already there, the goal should be to corral them safely, in the interest of all road users.